I usually don't enjoy much of the Escape to the Movies video, but this one just hit the point pretty well.

The Great JT:Plus, here's an idea, the framework's already there, so why not a Left 4 Dead movie? Yeah, yeah, video game movies will never be good, blah-blah-blah, but again, the framework's already there, the action's there, the characters could be extended upon in the context of the movie. What I'm saying is, "it seems like a bad idea, but with the right cast and crew it could work."

Which larger expand on the point that good movies are only those made out of games that ripped off movies to begin with: Resident Evil can be converted on a decent zombie movie, Mortal Kombat can be converted on a decent martial arts movie and Silent Hill can be converted on a decent horror movie. Try to convert Super Mario Bros into a movie and... well, we all know how that ended up.

While i agree with bob that the movie contains very little approached with the right mind set and the casting out of most preconceptions of what a movie should contain you get a visual and emotional treat, but not a movie at-least not in the sense of what a movie should be and what this film could of contained. Even if this movie does poor at the box office i predict it will become a cult film as you need a certain mind set to consider this a good movie, im not saying people who don't like it just don't get it i myself agree with bob on this one but i could certainly tell there was a certain type of person this film would strike a chord with.

Regular great work, though I didn't see how the metaphor supports your claim of "you can make a good movie out of anything". You either except that Halo could be made into a good movie (and it can, since Halo is a fucking rgeat game, and if you don't like it, fine, but I like it and so do many people) or say that not anything can be made into a good movie. You can't have your cake and eat it.Also, why is "Fuck" censored? suddenly The Escapist is poppulated with 7 year olds? come on, *beep*s break immersion so much. Use "Fuck" freely. Don't worry, we won't tell on you.

The beeping is The Escapist decision not the authors of the videos. You telling me that you didn't notice the beeping in ZP?

Do you have any proof of this or is it speculation? I didn't hear any beeping over the cursing in the most recent ZP review, where he said such things as "skull fucked".

EDIT: looking over it again, methinks you may have been being sarcastic. It's hard to tell in text.

I was not. I remenber them being bleeped. And people complaining about it last week. And there was a user that posted Russ Pitt response over the censor thingie that The Escapist had to keep the content to a PG-13 level. Let me scour the forums!

I felt that the Road -- the book version -- was overly pretentious and fell flat due to the lack of sympathetic characters and real plot. Run-on sentences and the lack of punctuation should not win you a Pulitzer Prize. I haven't read it in a year or so but from what I remember, the two mains just wander around observing the horrors of the post-apocalypse without ever truly getting involved. There are snippets of terrible things in the world at large -- the people being harvested in the basement, the troops marching off to war -- but we had to focus on these two main characters that refused to get involved.

I suppose that that was the point of the book: to be a showcase for the set-piece of the apocalyptic world. I was really hoping the movie would turn out good -- bad book = good movie right? -- but it looks like this just wasn't the case.

On a side note, I agree with all the posters here about the beeping. It was really jarring to hear it the first time a few videos back and I wish MovieBob wouldn't put it in his videos. The only reason I could think of for the beeping is if the videos are being broadcast on TV somewhere. Even then, you could use a softer beep or just cut the word out at F-.

I warn you now, The Seventh Seal, while a fantastic movie, is three hours of a man playing chess with death. It's Ingmar Bergman's finest work, and he was an outstanding director, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't get boring.

This video makes a good, if not rather worrying point. To adapt from a source material primarily set to convey mood and emotion a film can deliver the same content in a manner infinitely faster than the written word. Something that might take pages or even chapters in a novel can be displayed visually in seconds, which is a problem in terms of content priority. For the movie it may have actually been a better idea to include some overall story arch and narrative, instead of a 'walk down apocolypse lane', since then as a movie it would have something to follow and could still convey the same attitudes as the book - albiet in a much smaller matter of time. I myself write frequently and the focus on description tends to weight heavily on my work to the point I worry it's not interesting enough from an event perspective to read, and to find the same problems in a feature film... well, it kind of proves that the art-house genre is more spectacle orientated than much of the narrative mainstream. Focused on mood and attitude then story content, but does that mean the mainstream has more depth than the arthouse?

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. After all, Metropolis 1927 can still kick the pants off 90% of modern films in terms of both spectacle and story.

Note: Adaptation's monologue there is one of the best I've seen in a film, rarely need to stop and reflect on something said in a movie.

As somebody who isn't much of an internet junkie and doesn't really like internet junkies, but watches your reviews anyway because they're both more entertaining and more insightful than the stuff you get from Joe Morgenstern, I have a recommendation: cut the F-word. There are some people complaining about censorship here, but it seems to me the bleeps are less about the word itself and more about the astounding frequency with which you use it. From where I'm sitting, it looks like ever since you got to go ANGRYBob on Transformers 2 and especially since you got to do it again over Jennifer's Body, you've gotten more and more comfortable replacing cleverness with F-bombs. I don't have any fucking problem with people screaming fuck, but it should make a point instead of just filling empty space in your sentences.

Maybe this is just the common language of the internet. I have a pretty prejudiced view of online addicts as socially-inept loners who don't know how to make a point or draw attention to themselves except by being as crude as possible, and I'm sure that bleeping one in every five words is something these people get. But you're better than that. In fact, you're one of the best working critics in the nation today because you place movies in the context of film history, bother describing what works and what doesn't work, and make it all fun to watch with wit and cleverness. Wit and cleverness don't go well with tons of profanity; the one adds emphasis to a point be being thoughtful, while the other attempts the same by being thoughtless. These last couple of reviews have felt really watered down because every time you're about to say something genuinely funny you cut yourself off with a (blee-eep). Instead of having an original and insightful new critic, all of a sudden we're left with just another guy spewing F-laced anger onto the internet, and I hate that. So if you want your audience to be limited to loner teenage guys who think that being able to blow profanity at anonymous people on random forums makes them Jesus Christ, you keep doing what you're doing and I'll go elsewhere. But I really, really, really think you're better than that.

snitchy:I felt that the Road -- the book version -- was overly pretentious and fell flat due to the lack of sympathetic characters and real plot. Run-on sentences and the lack of punctuation should not win you a Pulitzer Prize.

I tend to agree with you. If it wasn't so short, I would have put it down long before finishing it. And this was after a lot of people told me what a good author Cormac McCarthy is. (Though I still plan to read Blood Meridian some day. That one actually sounds good.) I'm not surprised in the slightest that the movie isn't great either.

2)Lone Wolf and Cub is really, really bad. Exceptionally cheesy (Gun in pram...come on...)and lack of any bonding with the characters. I watched the film on 2x speed as it's subtitled. Missed out on nothing other than a waste of 1hr 15 or however long it took to watch.

I haven't seen any of the film versions, but I liked the manga. Ogami and his son are pretty one-dimensional characters throughout, but Koike and Kojima really flesh out the characters around them. You tend to have more sympathy for the villains, a cast of interesting, imaginative and conniving people who are slowly mowed down one-by-one by the emotionless force of nature Ogami Itto. Like watching Steven Seagal make his way through Batman's rogues gallery, but better.

Dun Dun Duuuun!

FFS Escapist / Movie Bob, please can you stop with the beeps and censoring? Or give us a reason why it's happening? There's swearing all over The Escapist, we're all adult enough to cope with some shits and fucks, so why is this censored?Failing that, can Bob just stop with the swearing altogether? The beep is ear-jarring and flow-disrupting, and it makes it harder to enjoy the bloody review.

That said, good review, the film looked pretty meh in trailers. I'm off to go find 12 angry men.

MB202:If I recall, this is the first time MovieBob didn't say "See you next time." at the end.

Charlie_Brown:FFS Escapist / Movie Bob, please can you stop with the beeps and censoring? Or give us a reason why it's happening? There's swearing all over The Escapist, we're all adult enough to cope with some shits and fucks, so why is this censored?Failing that, can Bob just stop with the swearing altogether? The beep is ear-jarring and flow-disrupting, and it makes it harder to enjoy the bloody review.

That said, good review, the film looked pretty meh in trailers. I'm off to go find 12 angry men.

MB202:If I recall, this is the first time MovieBob didn't say "See you next time." at the end.

Yeah, I noticed that too :(

Maybe The Escapist has started censoring friendliness as well as swearing?

The only place bleep-censorship has ever actually been appropriate as I've seen is Marik in YGO:TAS, with the funny voice yelling "EEF" over all his swearwords. Besides, MovieBob/TGO used to use the F-Bomb as a weapon, why no more?

"Allow me to respond in the most dignified manner I can muster given the circumstances.You're fucking wrong!"

Distorted Stu:Its called "The Road".. it doesn even sounds intresting! There are books that need to stay books.

I agree wholeheartedly, but I don't think this is one of those books. I saw this film at a pre-screening a few months ago and was pretty impressed. It was very true to the book and adapted well into a film. Hell, Cormac McCarthy wrote it as a screen play before he wrote it as a novel!

I haven't seen any of the film versions, but I liked the manga. Ogami and his son are pretty one-dimensional characters throughout, but Koike and Kojima really flesh out the characters around them. You tend to have more sympathy for the villains, a cast of interesting, imaginative and conniving people who are slowly mowed down one-by-one by the emotionless force of nature Ogami Itto. Like watching Steven Seagal make his way through Batman's rogues gallery, but better.

I haven't read the manga, but from what I could tell from the film, is something that could potentially really benefit from a remake.

Well, this hasn't encouraged me to see the film but it sure has encouraged me to read the book.

I think it would be good to compare and contrast this with the other great Cormac McCarthy work 'No Country for Old Men' that got an Oscar nominated film adaptation that I believe is fairly faithful to the book.

Hold on bob normally I agree with you but someone more annoying than Anakin now you are just being crazy. Now it might just be because that kid reminded me of my equally annoying neighbor but I wanted to slowly choke the life from Anakin can your "The Boy" top that?

I did however enjoy the 12 angry men thrown in there for I was forced to watch it in law class and dissect it and it was actually a damn good movie.

I've recently grown rather enthralled by this series and I just have one question about it. Why is it that periodically through the video when he stops for prolonged periods of time on a picture that it slowly loses its resolution and goes all blurry. From my end it just looks like he might be using a crappy video compression, is it a planned effect he slides in there because its rather annoying and really F's with my vision.

Maybe this is just the common language of the internet. I have a pretty prejudiced view of online addicts as socially-inept loners who don't know how to make a point or draw attention to themselves except by being as crude as possible, and I'm sure that bleeping one in every five words is something these people get. But you're better than that...

Using profanity for emphasis when you feel strongly about something is what pretty much what people do, not just on the net. Some adults swear casually in conversions all the time. Thats how some people talk, especially when they're worked up.

When I watch Bob's reviews, I'm not looking for a good laugh, I want to hear his opinion. More specifically, what he Fucking hates/likes about a flick, rather than Kind Of hates/likes.

The beeping is The Escapist decision not the authors of the videos. You telling me that you didn't notice the beeping in ZP?

Do you have any proof of this or is it speculation? I didn't hear any beeping over the cursing in the most recent ZP review, where he said such things as "skull fucked".

EDIT: looking over it again, methinks you may have been being sarcastic. It's hard to tell in text.

I was not. I remenber them being bleeped. And people complaining about it last week. And there was a user that posted Russ Pitt response over the censor thingie that The Escapist had to keep the content to a PG-13 level. Let me scour the forums!

Yeah ZP is clearly not bleeped. I think he did it once and it was meant to be part of the joke or something.

But the bleeping in this is annoying and pointless. It actually detracts from the video, for me at least.

RandV80:Wouldn't it be essentially the same as any other Zombie Survival movie? I mean the whole game plot is basically a generic zombie movie plot spiced up a bit for the action.

Oh like zombie movies are that diverse to begin with. Point is, at least Left 4 Dead can be considered for a zombie movie and it can be taken straight-faced, unlike Resident Evil where you know you're in for a shitfest. Hell, you could even characterize the Special Infected with some sembelence of remnant sentience, making them less like monsters and more like tragic characters. Especially the Witch, who to me seems fully aware of the tragedies that have befallen humanity and weeps uncontrollably because of it.

(Warning: That is just my interpretation of it, you're free to have your own.)

KingPiccolOwned:Yeah because it's not like we have any other movies out there about for survivors of a zombie apacalypse...

(movie poster of Zombieland, deleted for post length)

Oh wait

Oh come on, that was as much a zombie flick as it was a comedy. It's like how Evil Dead was part horror flick and part slapstick, coining the horror sub-genre "Slashstick" (slasher slapstick, but it applies to horror/comedy hybrid films like the Evil Dead movies, Zombieland and parts of Brain Dead/Dead Alive). Look point is, Zombieland shows the "four survivors trying to escape zombie apocalypse" formula can work if it's done right.

(PS: Evil Dead is fuckin' awesome, as are its sequels.)

hermes200:Try to convert Super Mario Bros into a movie and... well, we all know how that ended up.

My guilty pleasure in that it was so bad it was funny? And yes, that is how I feel about it, I do think it's funny in its badness.

Look, again I'm saying that anything can make a good movie, you just need to know what to do with it. Super Mario Bros. is, and and has always been, your standard "knight saves princess from dragon" story, even straight-facedly taking the last two parts straight from the bottle. The guys who did the Super Mario Bros. movie didn't know what direction to take it in, so it ended up being the way it did. It's like MovieBob himself said, Transformers could've been good despite the fact it's always been nothing more than a giant toy commercial, but that didn't stop the television shows from being good (Well most of 'em anyway. What, don't tell me you LIKED Beast Wars.).